Another Sis Boom Rebecca Dress

These Andover Fabrics arrived yesterday afternoon, and in my excitement, I threw them in the wash immediately and then sewed them up as soon as my kids went to bed at night. My dresses for the sew along are all made using Andover Fabrics. Please follow them on Facebookto keep up with all of their new designs!

Since I’ve finished my 2nd Sis Boom Rebecca Dress, I thought it was time that I write my pattern review since some of you have been starting to purchase the pattern to sew along! I will also have some photos of my 3 co-hosts wearing their completed dresses, on Monday! Just some more looks for you!

Fabric - The fabric for this dress was from Alison Glass‘s new line from Andover Fabrics called ‘Lucky Penny’. I first saw these fabrics when I was at Quilt Market last month. I loved them then, and every time I see them in a new project, I love them more and more (like this pillow below…no, I did not make this pillow but I wish I had!!). When I saw the pillow, I pulled the trigger and bought a fat quarter bundle of ‘Lucky Penny’ from Stash Modern Fabric, who literally just got it in. Soooo excited…can’t wait for it to get here and be petted, although I’m not yet sure what to make with it!!!

Anyway…this dress that I made used 2 yards of the main print, and I had 1/2 yard of the contrasting neckline fabric (which I hardly used any of, so lots of extra! It’s a great blender fabric!).

Pattern Pieces - The Rebecca Dress pattern only has a few pattern pieces, which are cut and taped together (since it’s a pdf pattern). There are the front and back bodice pieces, front and back belt, front and back facing, and skirt front and skirt back. Having worked on other garments before, this is a very small amount of pattern pieces to cut out. Yay for being fast and easy!

Please note that I made this version of the dress with a gathered skirt, which is not included in the pattern. I swapped in a gathered skirt front/back from my favorite Serendipity Studio Monique Dress. You can also use a gathered skirt from the Sis Boom Jamie Dress or any store-bought pattern (or you can draft your own).

Illustrations/Instructions - The pattern instructions on all of the Sis Boom patterns are really perfect. There are computer-generated full-color graphics for every step, which makes it very easy to follow along. The steps are elaborate and give you more than enough information to complete each step. There is a lot of explanation at the beginning (such as how long to cut your skirt, how to assemble the bias strip which goes on the armholes, etc.) that is very helpful for a beginner. Just great!!

I just wanted to mention that this pattern is for a FITTED dress. That means it is very important to take accurate hip measurements, as you don’t want to make the skirt too tight. In reference to the black-and-white dress below, I cut all of the pattern pieces at a size 0; my measurements also placed me at a skirt of size 0, HOWEVER, I sized up the skirt and cut it at a size 4. I am very happy with sizing up the skirt pieces (and the sewing pattern gives instructions on what to do to easily alter your skirt pieces if you are sizing up or sizing down the skirt piece) and I would recommend sizing up the skirt to anyone making this pattern. If you have any questions about doing this, feel free to ask in the Flickr Group!

Besides sizing up the skirt, that is the only modification that I made in my first version. I want to stress that whenever I am making any kind of clothing, I TRY ON AFTER EVERY MAJOR SEWING STEP. It’s just something I do to make sure I am on track for the dress fitting how I want it to fit. If you just sew from the instructions without ever trying it on until the end, you’re likely not going to be happy with the fit. It’s very simple and quick to try it on and just assess in the mirror. Everyone has a different body shape, and fitting is really important when making clothes for yourself. I ended up trimming 1″ off the sides of the bodice pieces (which in turn I also trimmed the belt pieces), which I wouldn’t have known that I needed to do unless I tried it on. The neckline ended up fitting me perfectly (no gaping), so I didn’t need to make any adjustments to the neck facings.

Since my 2nd version is a gathered skirt, I just cut the gathered skirt pieces as usual and gathered the fabric in small enough so that it fit the width of my belt/bodice pieces. Easy peasy.

Conclusion - I hope you will sew along with me! I’ve been getting a lot of people asking about the pattern, and many of them are beginners to garment sewing. This is a great way to dip your toes in the water. I love this pattern so much, and it’s fun and easy to put together. Not to put a stopwatch on you, but my 2nd version (since I had already made one), took me 3-1/2 hours from start to finish. My first one took me a couple of evenings. So this is the perfect weekend project to make!

9 thoughts on “Another Sis Boom Rebecca Dress”

Hmm, I’m excited about this line, and did not realize that particular fabric was such a large scale print, it works GREAT for clothing, but probably not for what I had in mind for quilting. That just looks fabulous!

Loooove the 2nd version of the dress, so perfect with the neckline/bodice style of the original pattern. I wish I had time to sew along, but sadly it won’t be happening right now. Will have to remember to put full skirts with fitted dress patterns when I get back to sewing for me again. Thanks.